Tag Archives: John Hughan

The John Hughan Trophy event was held at Barry Murphy’s field in Munro, VIC on the weekend of 28 February – 1 March 2015. John was one of the founding members of VMPRA who had a great passion for pylon racing.

The dedicated pylon racing field was in excellent condition as usual. Many competitors arrived on Friday to set up camp and to get some practice. A number of friends of the competitors attended as well and helped out as course workers. This support was greatly appreciated as regulars David and Toni Axon were attending the Avalon Airshow and Nerida Matthews was recovering from the flu.

The program for the weekend was to run eight rounds of F400 VIC, Q500 Sport and Formula Australia One (FA1), with 4 rounds being flown each day. The FA1 rules allow use of both muffled and un-muffled pipes. As per usual VMPRA practice, racing was over 10 ½ laps of the FAI course.

Saturday dawned warm and clear and the temperature and humidity were expected to be high. After some test flying, the course was set up and racing got underway by mid-morning.

F400 VIC was the first event to be run and this class attracted a modest five entries. There was close racing, but times were not very fast due to the calm and muggy weather conditions. At the end of Saturday, Brian Steele was in first place and had posted the fastest time of 69.61 seconds. Brian held a nine second lead over Glenn Matthews, who was followed closely by Andrew Davies.

Q500 Sport was the next class to be run and this event attracted an impressive 10 entries. The entry list included two father-son teams – David and Caleb Chippindall and Gary and Alan Whitbourn. John Schmidli set the early pace with a time of 96.35, but at the end of four rounds he was in second place – 0.6 seconds behind Tom Wetherill. A bit further back, Andrew Arapakis posted a personal best time of 107.86. The Chippendall and Whitbourn families had their hands full running all their planes, but were enjoying the challenge.

In the afternoon FA1 was run and this class attracted nine entries. Some of the regulars were away due to family commitments and saving gear for the World Championships. The conditions were not conducive for fast times as the weather was hot, humid and there was no wind. After four rounds, Barry Murphy was in the lead – approximately four seconds clear of Glenn Matthews. Daniel Arapakis was 0.5 seconds behind in third and had posted the fastest time of 64.82.

The calm weather was interrupted during the night as a major storm front passed through the area – making an interesting time for the camping contingent. The following morning was cool and the gusty winds required that the course be reset before racing could begin.

The racing program was a repeat of the prior day, with F400 up first. Brian Steele continued his form and finished first with a score of 425.1. Glenn Matthews was second with a score of 436.2, closely followed by Andrew Davies with a score of 436.8.

In Q500, Tom Wetherill continued to post consistent times and finished first with a score of 587.7. The Q500’s were getting blown about in the wind and John Schmidli’s effort was compromised by two heats with cuts. He finished second with a score of 600.1. Jim Orenshaw was third with a score of 627.2. The family battles were won by David Chippindall and Alan Whitbourn, respectively.

The wind picked up throughout the day and the FA1’s seemed to run much better in these conditions. There was very exciting and close wing-tip to wing-tip racing. In the end host, Barry Murphy finished in first place with a score of 385.3. He was followed very closely by Daniel Arapakis in second place with a score of 385.9 – all the practice at this field for the upcoming World Championships was paying off. Glenn Matthews was a close third with a score of 387.0.

The times improved significantly over the prior day – with Barry Murphy posting the fast time of 60.89. Notable FA1 performances were also put in by Gary Davidson flying an Evo NXT and Andrew Davies flying the ex-Arapakis Veyron. The Veyron proved to be very competitive in its debut with Andrew at the helm, just edging Daniel for a 2nd faster time.

At the end of the day, the course was packed up and a prize-giving ceremony was held. VMPRA expresses its appreciation to Barry Murphy for making the field available and for hosting the competition. The VMPRA committee apologises for not having trophies available in time for handing out at this event.

The written content in this post is accurate to the best of my/our knowledge at the time of publishing. It is written from my perspective and reflects how I have experienced this event.Photos published as feature images are selected purely for their quality, general interest or topicality. They are chosen from a pool of photos taken by myself and others when time permits.If a perspective is not being represented, I am more than happy to publish any written content or photos that are supplied to me provided it is fair and reasonable.

Just a quick update to mention that the next pylon racing event coming up at Munro is the John Hughan Trophy. This will mean something to many of us who flew with John in years gone by.

The rules on this website have been updated to link back to the AMPRA rules except for the F400 rules which are VMPRA specific. This mainly effects Q500 as a couple of recent changes at AMPRA had not been reflected in the rules on this site.

Although numbers where a bit down due to the F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne and other clashes, this weekend turned out to be fantastic conditions for flying pylon, the field was in great condition and all had a good time.

F400 was flown with 2 new competitors to this class (Barry Townsend & myself) and Q500 saw Matt Carter flying in his second event (1st being Camperdown) and Ian Rickard who usually helps in the pylon cage on these weekends, flew Q500 for the first time.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of John Hughan, who finally lost his battle with cancer on the morning of Jan 30, 2012.

John, a member at LDMFA for many year, started pylon racing back in 1969, and was an active participant until recent years.

He was present at the formation of The Australian Miniature Pylon Racing Association (AMPRA) and was elected to the position of President. A position that he held for some 23 years. He was chairman of the MAAA pylon technical sub committee, was involved at the state level through (VMPRA) and had also been a contributor to the Australian Airborne Model Magazine for 15 years – writing a regular pylon articles.